Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a crimp terminal which provides connection in an automobile wire harness, and to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing same.
Background
Wire harnesses are often used for internal wiring of automobiles. A wire harness is a module in which a plurality of coated wires are assembled in accordance with in-vehicle wiring specifications. Crimp terminals, for example, are crimped to ends of each of the coated wires. When connecting a crimp terminal to a wire end of the wire harness, electrical connection between the wire end and the crimp terminal is provided by stripping the insulating coating layer at a wire end to expose the core wire, and swaging and crimping a core wire barrel of the crimp terminal to the exposed portion of the core wire. The connecting portion between the crimp terminal and the wire end is sealed with resin so as to prevent corrosion of the core wire due to ingress of moisture into the wire from the connecting portion (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-167821 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-069449).
However, sealing the connecting portion of the crimp terminal and the wire end with resin gives rise to an increase in the manufacturing cost of the wire harness. This is because, in addition to the fact that the resin used is expensive in itself, time is required to apply and cure the resin in a resin molding process or a coating process.
Therefore, attempts have been made to obtain a sealed structure for the wire connecting portion (crimp portion) of the crimp terminal by bending the wire connecting portion into a tubular shape by press molding, and joining the entire butted interface between the respective ends of the plate material formed at the tubular-shaped bent part by laser welding.
When crimping a crimp terminal with a coated wire from which the conductor portion, such as a core wire, is exposed, it is necessary that the conductor portion has continuity with the crimp terminal. There may be a case where the surface of the conductor portion is covered with an oxide film. Since an oxide film is non-conducting, if the surface of the conductor portion is covered with an oxide film, there is a problem that it becomes difficult to ensure a conducting state between the core wire and the crimp terminal.
Therefore, the present disclosure is related to providing a method and an apparatus for manufacturing a crimp terminal capable of achieving a good state of conduction between a conductor portion of a coated wire and a crimp terminal.